


Summertime

by Nyashini



Category: OMORI (Video Game)
Genre: Alternate Universe - Role Reversal, F/M, Kinda, M/M, Spoilers
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2021-01-14
Updated: 2021-01-22
Packaged: 2021-03-12 09:01:06
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Major Character Death
Chapters: 2
Words: 7,422
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/28757742
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Nyashini/pseuds/Nyashini
Summary: Basil has some courage left.Kel gets a new roommate.Sunny makes some friends.Mari plays the piano.Aubrey goes to church.Hero leaves.
Relationships: Basil/Sunny (OMORI), Hero & Kel (OMORI), Hero/Mari (OMORI)
Comments: 27
Kudos: 294





	1. PROLOGUE

**BASIL**

It's the last month of sophomore year during a study period when Basil approaches Kel for the first time in four years. Kel is hunched over his desk as usual, squinting into the pages of whatever advanced textbook he busies himself with today. When Basil peers over the book to see what subject it is on, he is met with only nonsensical symbols and diagrams. It makes his head spin.

...So is it math? Science? Something else that he can't possibly wrap his head around? 

Somewhere in the deep recesses of his mind, Basil remembers helping  _ Kel _ with his math homework. Basil remembers a Kel who cared more about going outside and having fun after school than completing his schoolwork on time. The Kel he stands over now is not the same. Today's Kel is nothing like the Kel who would run around for hours with no care to the hot sun beating down on his back or the dirt caking his fingernails. Today's Kel is studious, organized, and speaks only when he raises his hand diligently in class. 

Today's Kel doesn't even notice as Basil stands over him, contemplating if walking over to his old friend's desk is worth the trouble at all. He isn't the same person as he was four years ago. He shares the same face as the loud troublemaker pictured in Basil's photo album, but nothing else. 

This Kel is a stranger, and it  _ scares  _ him.

He could just turn around, he supposes. He knows Sunny would come to him and keep him company if he did as little as send him a text. Sunny hasn't cared for rules in a long time anyways. Skipping class doesn't mean anything to him. It means even less to him if it is skipping class for Basil's sake.

It wasn't just Kel that had changed from those days, after all. Sunny has more friends now than ever, but they aren't the kinds of friends that Mari approves of. Basil knows that Mari and Sunny have both been in something akin to a cold war for several years now. 

She still greets Basil warmly whenever she's at home to see him, though. He suspects that he's the only classmate Sunny is allowed to bring home on her watch. 

Basil hasn't seen much of Aubrey. She skips school almost as much as Sunny does, but she doesn't seem to have any friends to spend that extra time with. Whenever Basil catches a glimpse of her, she's always sporting some sort of new injury. More often than not, there wouldn't be just one.

Just where do they come from? Is she okay..? 

He worries for Aubrey, but the glare she sends in his direction whenever he meets her eyes is more than enough to send him away.

Basil wonders if he's changed, too. Probably not, he thinks he's still as weak as he's always been. Though if he's so weak, then how does he muster up the courage to open his mouth and speak in the face of a stranger?

"Kel, um…" Basil tries. His voice is shaking. Kel makes no indication that he even hears what the other is saying. "I was wondering if you wanted to study together for finals after school." 

"Sure, why not? I heard that studying with others could have its benefits." Kel replies lamely, flipping to the next page in his textbook. This page has even  _ less _ pictures than the last.

"Great, so...your house or mine?" 

"Yours. Where else?" Kel finally lifts his head to give Basil a long look. His tired eyes burn into the blonde boy's very being.

Basil  _ winces. _ It makes sense.

"I'm sorry..! I shouldn't have asked. It just slipped my mind, and..."

"It's  _ fine _ , Basil." Kel waves it off. "It doesn't matter. I'll meet you in front of school if you want to walk together." 

...The conversation was awkward, and the walk home even more so, but Basil can't help but to believe that he had accomplished something for once.

**KEL**

Kel shares a room with a ghost. 

It isn't so bad when he can hear his parents and sister downstairs or in the bedroom just down the hall. It isn't so bad when the days are long and bright and he can trust that the sunlight will keep the shadows at bay. It isn't so bad at night when he turns the lights on and closes the blinds.

It isn't so bad at those moments, but it's never  _ good.  _ When light fills every corner of the room, it only reminds Kel of the half that is frozen in time. He gravitates to it, brushes off the finest layer of dust, straightens the sheets of a bed that is already perfectly made. It  _ surely _ isn't healthy, but at least he can pretend that there's someone to keep the room tidy for this way. He can pretend that one day the door of  _ their  _ room will swing open again, and everything will be okay. 

It's not okay, though.

At night, the shadows in the room swirl and the ghost that lives in the other side of his room begins to take form. It amasses itself into  _ something awful _ that Kel can't even begin to explain, bound only by the shadowy wires that drip off the darkened walls behind it. It stands over his brother's empty bed, and Kel lets it linger there until morning. Even as the sun filters through the blinds the next day, Kel can still feel its eyes burning their way into his back.

The feeling gradually leaves as he gets ready for the school day, hot water melting murky shadows off his skin. His walk to school is forgettable and freeing. The shadows can't catch him where they are weak. He chases unnecessary thoughts away with numbers. The stress of keeping equations rooted in his head is what keeps him sane.

He thinks of Hero, only briefly. He was better at this than him.

Hero was perfect. The world looked upon him with appreciative eyes. The world said he could be anything, and he was everything. For all of fifteen years.

If the world thought Hero to be anything, what is Kel to such a world..?

Kel is nothing but a shadow, a botched replica. A reflection sitting upon shattered glass.

He chases unnecessary thoughts away with numbers. 

_ Vertical Asymptotes can be found by solving the equation n(x)=0. Asymptotes can be defined as lines that approach a curve closely, but veer away before they are ever able to touch. _

Of all the ghosts from his past that he thought would approach him first, he didn’t expect Basil to be the one. In their childhood, Basil was always a follower. He and Sunny were always content in letting the other members of their little group decide what they were going to do in those distant summer days.

Kel thinks he might have underestimated him.

He agrees, of course. Out of all his old friends, Basil is the one that is most welcome to him. Besides the fact that he has some excess courage now, Basil is more or less the same person as he’s always been. It’s comforting, almost, the way Basil falls into talking about the new plants he’s growing when Kel doesn’t offer any conversation topics on their way home.

It’s so familiar. He can almost pretend that nothing has changed at all.

The two boys are sitting side by side over the dining table in Basil’s house when Kel asks a question that had been on his mind for the whole afternoon. It’s a selfish question, really, but nothing he has never asked of Basil before. He wonders when exactly it became so hard to ask something so trivial of his former best friends.

Everything has been spun off-kilter these past four years. Things that seemed normal back then are leaps and bounds over invisible lines now.

But Kel is afraid of the ghost that haunts his room, and he is willing to cross a line to evade it, even if just for one night.

"Hey Basil, do you think I could stay over until tomorrow?"

**SUNNY**

The day Mari yelled at Sunny to get out of the house  _ for once  _ and make some friends, he was honestly caught off guard. Mari  _ rarely  _ raised her voice. Sunny could only remember a couple of times in the past thirteen years when something made her mad enough to resort to such measures.

Maybe knocking on the closed door of the piano room was pushing it. Sunny could hear the cacophony of dissonant piano keys even when he was upstairs, and it only became more discordant as he stood in front of the room. It was so unlike Mari to play anything short of perfection. He was worried. He missed her. He only wanted to help. 

If he only wanted to help, how did he end up making things worse? 

“Don’t you have anything better to do, Sunny?”

He can still hear her voice in his head sometimes, and he can still feel himself shaking his head  _ no.  _ It was hard for him to go out as much as he used to when his friend group splintered across every corner of Faraway Town, refusing to mend itself. 

“I have auditions to work on for college. You're bothering me."

He knew that. Whatever Mari was subjecting herself to wasn't just preparation for college, though. The two of them share a room, but at that time she only came in to sleep in the early hours of the morning, and she always left back to the piano room a few hours later. It was like she created a new room for herself. It was like she lived there instead. 

No one was there to chase the nightmares away for him anymore, there was only empty space and the distant sound of piano keys. He would spend the next few years dealing with them all on his own.

"Why don't you go outside and make your own friends for once? I can't always be shielding you. You're not a little kid anymore!"

He can still feel the tears pricking the corners of his eyes. He couldn't help but think that she was right. He still had Basil, but he was just as bad as making new friends as he was. Mari and Hero were the ones that stitched their little group together to begin with. They were the ones that led the way and made sure that they always had plenty of fun things to do.

Hero is gone now. Sunny can't help but to think that he took Mari with him, too.

Sunny doesn't remember much after that. He thinks she must've said more that day, but it didn't really stick in his mind.

He ran out of the house when it became too much. He still remembers Mari yelling after him. He doesn't remember what the words were. The words didn't make sense to him anymore. He only wanted them to stop. He thinks it was drizzling that day. He was glad for that at the time. It hid away his tears.

That day he bumped into someone, after all. One of his neighbors. Someone he doesn't remember talking to at all before that day.

"You're Sunny, aren't you? From down the street..?" The boy in the blonde wig asked him as he pulled himself up from the ground. Sunny felt bad. The boy's clothes became soaked and dirty because of him.

"Yeah...sorry."

"It's okay, man. We all need to get away from home sometimes."

Sunny couldn't agree more. That fateful run-in with Mikhael set the stage for him meeting the rest of his little group of troubled friends. It's been three years since that day, and Sunny has done so much since then. 

He's learned to laugh again. He can speak for himself. He spent his savings for an electric violin one day (much to Mari's dismay), and the rest of the gang picked up instruments after him. They play in Faraway Park every Friday, and use the change they earn from passersby to buy themselves greasy pizza right after. It's not the same as back then, but it's close enough.

It's close enough. 

  
  
  
  


**MARI**

Omori is Mari's longest friend. The grand piano always listens to her, letting her vent out all of her frustrations onto its keys as much and as long as she wishes. Omori never asks anything of her, it never complains when Mari slams the keys a little too hard after messing up  _ this one note  _ for the third time in the row. Omori just sits in front of her in comforting silence, waiting for her to begin again. 

"Deep breaths, Mari. You don't always have to be perfect."

_ Like you can say that.  _

Slam.

"You should probably take a break. Here, I'll make you something."

_ You can't. _

Slam.

"Sunny wants to spend more time with you...aside from your work on the recital."

_ He doesn't want that. Not anymore, at least. _

Slam.

Mari can't pinpoint where exactly she went wrong. What note did she hit to create such terrible dissonance? She could've been faster. Maybe she wouldn't have slipped up if the tempo was right. Maybe things would be different then. 

Maybe then, he would still be alive.

She often loses herself in the rabbit hole of "what ifs". Staying away from Faraway Town doesn't save her. She would toss and turn on her lumpy dorm bed the same way she tosses and turns back home. Her thoughts are what’s haunted, not the town. Her thoughts haunt everything she sees and does. As long as she has these thoughts, she will never be at peace.

She came home from college three days ago. Her mom and dad embraced her as soon as she opened the door. Sunny was nowhere to be seen. The sound of children laughing in the sunlit halls were but a distant memory. Her thoughts haunt her. She will never be at peace.

"Don't overthink. Just play."

_ Right. That’s where it gets me, doesn’t it? _

Her hands settle over the keys again. They land more gently this time. A silent apology to her dutiful and forgiving piano.

A silent apology to his voice forever reverberating in her head.

The song that leaves her is not the music written on the score set on Omori’s music stand, but an echo of a memory.

  
  
  


**AUBREY**

Aubrey goes to church every Sunday. It's something that she picked up four years ago, and it's frankly a blessing that she doesn't ever see any of her old friends there. Even catching sight of any of the four of them around town sends her spiraling. Especially Kel. 

She doesn’t want to talk to Kel. Not now, not  _ ever.  _ Not after what he did. Not after what he continues to do.

Aubrey isn’t an idiot. She knows what he’s doing when he buries his head in books and forgets about who he was before that one day four years ago. He's trying to mold himself into someone else, someone who can’t be around anymore. He’s trying to make up for his mistake that day. She’s not an idiot. She knows it would never work. 

It never works for her, either. So why would it work for him?

She knows that they are one and the same. The real reason she can’t stand him is because it’s actually like looking into a mirror. Looking in a mirror, just like that day. Two faces twisted into the same disgusted expression. Two matching pairs of clenched fists. 

She has to stay away from him. She has to find peace, somehow. She knows talking to him will only end up in a fight. She  _ hates  _ fights. She would do anything to stop a fight.

She's suddenly reminded of the bruises up her arms, the shallow scratches covered up by band-aids. There's more of those than what can simply be seen. She feels a familiar numb pain where her body meets the church pew. It never goes away.

She would do anything to stop a fight. It doesn't matter if it hurts her. It doesn't matter if all the residual anger from the fights she interrupts is directed at her instead. She would do anything to stop a fight. It's the only way she feels she can redeem herself.

Even so, she still can't forgive. No amount of pain will ever make up for what  _ he  _ did for them. Maybe one day she can hope for a similar fate, maybe she'll be forgiven then.

Aubrey goes to church every Sunday. She speaks her sins to the air. She feels the pain of all the fights she's broken into sink into her skin. It isn't enough. It will never be enough. 

It's  _ something _ , though, and she would like to think her something is more than Kel's.

  
  


**HERO**

HERO hums to himself as he plates up KEL's eggs and bacon (with extra bacon, of course) next to a tall glass of orange juice. He always makes sure to cook a hot breakfast for KEL before he leaves their shared home every day. HERO doesn't have to worry about the food going cold, for it is not something that is possible here. Here, it's not worth wondering about what is and what isn't possible.

[But what is "here"..?

It is hard to say.

Reality is a hard thing to grasp, sometimes. 

Sometimes it is better to get lost in a dream.

Dear DREAMER, have you grown weary of the monotony of this place?

Dear KEL, is it not the safety of this space that you wish for?

Why do you make dealings with ghosts of the past?

Do you not know that he is only going to hurt you..?]

HERO isn’t exactly sure why he has to leave, but he feels that it’s something he should do. KEL will meet him along the line, anyways. He always does. 

  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  



	2. T MINUS THREE

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Two steps forward, and one step back.

**HERO**

AUBREY has gone missing. Apparently she disappeared shortly after the group went to visit her castle together the other day. As KEL informs HERO of this, he can't help but frown at the thought. He can clearly see the worry evident in the faces of the three friends that trail behind his brother. This _has_ to be serious. KEL seems to be especially disturbed by this development, and HERO has to try to keep himself from smothering his younger brother in a hug right then and there.

It wouldn't really be wise to do that right now. He's still hunched down, attempting to screw in a wheel of a car belonging to a marsupial with a helmet. It’s pretty greasy business. How exactly did HERO end up in a situation like this anyways..?

“I’m sure AUBREY is somewhere, guys! She would never leave us just like that…” HERO attempts to reassure his friends, looking up at them with a slight smile. It doesn't do too much to ease the worry from their minds, but the HERO’s grounding presence does boost the mood at least.

“Do you have any idea where she might be?” Asks BASIL, a shred of hope sparkling in his eyes. HERO hates to let him down, but he honestly has no idea. There’s a nagging feeling in his back of his head that tells him that something terrible must’ve happened for AUBREY to be missing like this all of a sudden, but he ignores it. He has to help his friends, not add to their worries.

It’s probably nothing anyway.

“Well...It’s best to look close by, first. She couldn't have gone too far. Why don’t you check the SPEEDWAY? I’ll be heading out there after I finish fixing this RACER-ROO's car." HERO explains, motioning towards his handiwork. 

"Is fixing cars your job now, HERO? I thought you were a chef..! Just who will be around to cook for me now that you've gotten a whole new livelihood?" Teases MARI.

"I just...try to help out where I can. This doesn't mean I'm stepping down from being a chef, MARI. Don't worry." HERO assures, feeling a bit bashful. "Do you guys need anything, by the way? All of you look like you're starving, and I have snacks in my bag if you want them."

"That's amazing! Don’t mind if we do~” MARI exclaims, immediately making a beeline for the bag HERO had put aside a few feet away from him.

“Oh. Thanks, HERO.” SUNNY offers HERO a nod in acknowledgment before characteristically following after his sister.

“Thank you so much! Your homemade snacks are always so good...” Says Basil, ever so polite.

HERO watches them go, grinning to himself. He knew packing snacks was a wise idea. He then turns back to the place where the group had been talking to him before. After this, it is just KEL that stands in front of him. 

  
“How about you, KEL? I’m your big brother, so I’ll always do my best to help you with whatever you need.”

“Other than the snacks, what I really want is…” KEL trails off, leaving HERO a bit worried as to what he is about to say next.

“I’m listening.”  
“A hug. Come on, HERO! You’re never one to refuse a hug~”

“KEL, I don’t think you noticed this, but...I have motor oil all over my clothes.”

“A little motor oil never killed anyone? At least, I don’t think it did!”

HERO sighs. He could never refuse a request like that. He drops what he's doing and stands with his arms wide open.

**BASIL**

“It’s been a month, and you’re _still_ hanging out with Kel. Why? It’s not like you have finals anymore.”

It’s a question asked over dinner at Sunny’s house during the last week of school. Though, does midnight ramen really count as dinner..? Basil can’t really say. Nonetheless, it’s a question asked over food, and Basil almost chokes on his noodles from how abrupt it is. It’s a good thing he collects himself quickly. 

Even if it’s just Sunny, Basil would be embarrassed if he made such a scene.   
“He seems lonely, Sunny. We used to be best friends, so is it wrong to want to catch up with him?”

“ _It is,_ Basil.” Sunny crosses his arms. “He never bothered to see how either of us were doing, so why are you giving him that much?”

So that’s what it is. Basil’s a little hurt by this too, but he thinks he’d ought to offer Kel at least a little bit of grace. He voices this:

“...We don’t know what he’s been through. It’s tough for both of us, but I can’t imagine how it is for him.”

“It’s not like I don’t know that! Do you know how many times I tried to get in contact with him? Do you know how many nights I spent agonizing over if he was okay? Only for him to come back to school two months after everything happened as a completely different person..! He passed us in the halls like we were nothing to him!”

Basil nods. It’s more than he could possibly count. Sunny has been a lot braver than him these past few years. He remembers the days and weeks after the accident where the other boy would call his neighbors every night, only for Kel’s parents to answer and say that he wasn’t taking any calls. Sunny had understood, then. 

Sunny knows what it’s like to have an older sibling. He doesn’t know what it’s like to _lose_ one, but Basil can guess that this is why Sunny wanted to offer his comfort more than anyone. He tried really hard. Sunny tried really hard, even though he was hurting, too. Basil admires that about him. 

Basil remembers the day that Kel had come back to school as clear as anything. He was more put together, then. Gone were the Captain Spaceboy keychains that always hung off his bag. Gone were his sports jerseys. Gone was his smile, his rowdiness. 

Gone was any sense of familiarity. Kel really didn’t pay them any mind, then. It hurt. 

“We grew up with Hero, too. All five of us did. Yet, it feels like we’re the only ones who care to hold on to the memories we had together.”

“That’s not true. Kel doesn’t talk much anymore, but...he looks through my photo album every time he stays over. That has to mean something, right?”

“Hmph. If you say so.”

"I am saying so." Basil huffs. "I think Kel will come around. We just need to give him time."

"Isn't four years enough time..?"

"I don't think any amount of time is enough to get over something like this, to be honest. Have either of us _really_ gotten over it?"

They haven't. They both know this all too well. Some days Basil goes to Sunny's house just to cry. Some days Sunny cries too.

“...He should’ve let us in. It might’ve been easier.”

“Yeah, but that’s hard too. Isn’t it?”

  
  
  


**KEL**

It’s morning. Kel wipes the sleep away from his bleary eyes. He wishes he could go back, just like every time he wakes up. He misses the sweet familiarity of the friends in his dreams. He misses Hero. He can almost feel the phantom sensation of being hugged as he lays still in bed. Maybe if he continues to lie down like this, the feeling would never leave. Hero always gave the best hugs. Kel would do anything to experience them again.

He wants to go back to sleep. 

His alarm is going off, though. It’s set five minutes before he is actually _supposed_ to get up for school. It’s like how responsible people tend to set their alarms. It’s how Hero used to set his.

Hero’s alarm hasn’t rung in a long time. He can’t get up for them anymore.

It’s something that’s kind of hard to accept.

There are many things in this house that Kel finds to be hard to accept.

One is the Captain Spaceboy height measure taped inside of Kel’s room, on the wall opposite to the one his and Hero’s beds are pushed up against. It lives right next to the door in what was once Hero’s side of the room, so because of that specific detail he refuses to take it down like he did with the rest of his childish merchandise years back. He tried to pull it off the wall once, but it felt _wrong_ to him. An invisible burning sensation crawled up his arms when he did, and it didn’t leave until the offending poster was taped safely back to its place once again. This makes it the last surviving piece of Captain Spaceboy memorabilia left in his room.

The poster itself only measures up to six feet tall. As he is now, Kel is only two inches away from reaching the top of its capabilities. Though, his last _marked_ height is around four feet and eleven inches. Hero’s is five feet and seven inches. Both heights are written neatly onto their respective places in Hero's blocky handwriting. 

It hurts to think that Kel is now taller than Hero will ever be.

Isn't that what Kel wanted once? Wasn't this a pipe dream he had when he was much younger..? It feels like he's cheating. He hasn't won at all. He wishes he could be happy about something for once.

 _Maybe if you didn't rob him of his_ -

No. Unnecessary. 

_It’s all your-_

No.

Two is the opened acceptance letter to a culinary internship, neatly tucked away at a corner of Hero's desk. 

Kel doesn’t usually look through Hero’s things too closely. It’s not something he thinks that he deserves. Though, in his weekly routine of tidying up Hero’s side of the room, the piece of paper had caught his eyes more than once.

Now he wishes he never looked at it. Damn his curiosity.

  
When he asked his mother about the letter, she had burst into tears on the spot. She said that she allowed Hero to take this chance at his dreams because he was so excited over the opportunity. She remembered how happy he was when she relented. He gave her the biggest hug, promised that he wouldn’t let her down. She knew he wouldn’t, but in the end he never even got the chance.

He learned that Hero planned to tell their friend group about his acceptance on the day of the accident. Hero had made their mother promise not to tell. She never did, in the end.

She then proceeded to ask Kel if there was anything else _he_ wanted to do, any dreams he wanted to shoot for. She had never given Kel this sort of opportunity in his life. She had never even given it to Hero, not without a fight.

Basketball, was it? 

He shook his head, then. Not anymore. That was just a childish dream, wasn’t it?

Three is Sally. No, Kel has nothing against Sally. She's still just a little baby, so it would be unfair to think badly of her. What he really has a problem with is the idea that his parents thought that having another child was a good idea. It had been three years then, but still…

Why did his parents want to replace Hero so bad? That had to be what it was, right? 

They didn’t see Kel to be a suitable enough replacement, so they had to bring someone else, right? 

No.

 _A big brother shouldn’t be thinking things like this._ Why does Kel always think like this? What’s wrong with him? What would Hero say? 

He’s sure Hero never thought of him in this way. He was the blueprint, so why would he?

No. 

Hero was simply too kind of a person, that’s all. 

Kel glances towards his alarm clock again. He wonders where the last thirty minutes had gone off to. He can’t wonder for long. He has to get ready.

  
  


**SUNNY**

Basil and Sunny ended up falling asleep on the couch at around one that morning. Of course, Basil is up by six thirty, as he is every morning, and he fixes some breakfast for the two of them. Sunny is woken up by the savory aroma of scrambled eggs tickling his nose. He doesn’t open his eyes, but he’s sure Basil knows that he’s awake.

The smell of eggs comes closer. Sunny suspects that Basil has set them on the coffee table in front of the couch he is laying down on. 

Sunny is both tired _and_ hungry. What a predicament. He doesn’t move. 

"Do you want to make it to first period, Sunny? I know you hate mornings."

Sunny groans. He doesn't want to. He _really_ doesn't. School really shouldn't be allowed to run as early as it does. It’s cruel and unusual punishment. 

"If you don't want to, that's fine. I'll go walk with Kel."

Sunny's wide awake now. He hopes he’s giving Basil a threatening look. 

"No, you won't."

"I will. He's my friend."

Sunny pushes himself up into a sitting position, groaning all the way. What a pain.

"I'll come with."

Basil looks confused. He lets him be confused. They quickly finish their eggs and head over to Kel’s house. 

Kel leaves his house today looking rather disheveled. He must be having a bad morning. Somehow, his messy hair today reminds Sunny of Hero. He dismisses the thought as quick as it comes. Kel will _never_ be Hero, no matter how hard he tries. 

He knows that, right?

The walk to school is silent for the most part. Sunny scrambles for something to fill the space.

"For your information, Kel...I'm still mad at you."

"That's fine."

To be honest, Sunny expected Kel to fight back a little more. Kel’s quick acceptance of his anger almost makes him feel bad. Almost.

"Sunny, you could _try_ to be a bit more polite. You guys haven't spoken for a few years."

"That's his fault." Sunny snaps back quickly.

"...I'm sorry." 

Kel’s so quick to give in.

Sunny is close to being convinced that this Kel must be an imposter. Perhaps all of his friends and his sister were replaced by dopplegangers. Though, if they were all replaced by dopplegangers, then why wasn’t one spared for Hero? What kind of cruel reality is that? 

Hero is dead. Sunny knows that. His imagination just goes places he doesn’t want it to go sometimes. He’s working on it.

"Maybe we could all catch up together..! Doesn't Gino's have some deals on Wednesdays?"

"Fifty-percent off on sandwiches on Wednesdays. Hero used to look forward to it."

Sunny doesn't know what to say. Maybe this is the reason he prefers to go on Fridays. It hurts to remember the countless times he had gone to the Gino’s with his old friends just to order anything but pizza. He misses those days. Maybe he isn’t close enough, after all.

"We don't have to go to Gino's." Basil suggests now, quickly backtracking. Always backtracking.

"I haven't been there in a long time. It might be nice."

Sunny raises an eyebrow at that one. He’s not sure if he believes it, but if Kel agreed, they have to be going anyway.

They head to Gino’s after an uneventful day at school. There’s not much to do now that there’s only three days left until summer vacation, but Sunny skips most of his classes anyways. As far as he’s concerned, the lack of material gives him even more reason to. At least he was on time for homeroom. _That_ came as a surprise to his classmates. 

Another surprise comes in the form of the owner of the pizza place greeting _Kel_ of all people the second the three boys walk through the door. Sunny has seen the man many times throughout the years, but today is one of the rare occurrences in which he is manning the register. 

“If it isn’t Kel! I haven’t seen you around these parts in a while.” Says the man, paying Sunny and Basil no mind. “I know you must have had your reasons for not coming here, but there is something I just have to show you..! Look here!”

Sunny looks to where the shop owner is pointing on the large menu board behind him. His eyes widen as he scans over the text following the description of Hero's namesake, the Hero Sandwich.

[In honor of Faraway Town's Hero.]

The man turns back to Kel after making sure that the boys had read over the text on the board. Sunny has done more than just read it once at this point, the words knocking around in his head over and over. 

A tribute in a pizza place. He didn't expect something like that.

“Your mother told me a few years back that Hero had gotten his nickname because of this sandwich. It actually surprised me, because at that point I wasn’t sure what came first...and I was the one that named the sandwich! Haha!" 

What a good-natured man. He cracks a joke but no one is there to laugh.

“I soon came to realize that there are people in this world that get named after things and people that give things their names. That boy was both.”

_Wow…_

Leave it to Hero to accomplish something like that. It’s almost poetic. It _is_ poetic. Hero was an amazing guy. Sunny looked up to him more than he could ever say. 

He still looks up to him, misses him. He’s older than Hero was when he died at this point, and he feels like he hasn’t accomplished anything at all. Hero wouldn’t think less of him for that, though. Hero would support him. He would encourage him to do better.

“I was just about to take that sandwich off the menu when he came into my shop and declared it his favorite food. His word spread fast throughout the years, and Gino’s came to be known as more than just a pizza place. We owe the ‘Hero Sandwich’ to him.”

Sunny casts a sideways glance towards Kel. His fists are curled up into balls, but he doesn’t say a word. His face is a blank slate, but Sunny has to guess that he’s uncomfortable. The shopkeep continues to talk. 

Should Sunny do something..? He doesn’t know what to do. He doesn’t even _know_ Kel, not really. How would he know what to do?

“That boy was deeply beloved by this town. I had never met someone who was so willing to help anyone and everyone around him. I am sure Faraway Town has never seen someone so universally loved.”

Everything stops. 

Sunny can’t say when exactly Kel runs out the door, but he does. By the time his mind clears, him and Basil are left in the restaurant, dumbfounded. _Alone, once again._

The shop owner apologizes to Basil and Sunny for scaring away their friend, and gives them three sandwiches as compensation. Basil says that they should both go to Kel’s house to drop one off for him. 

Sunny nods, but he thinks they should’ve just kept the free food.

**AUBREY**

The church is mostly empty at this time. No service is being held. Aubrey knows this, she walks straight through the building and out one of the heavy doors at the back. Back into the open air, once again. It’s quiet here.

She feels numb.

Down a path that she knows by heart, she could probably walk through the church cemetary with her eyes closed. She could probably find him where he is without any sense in her mind, backmost row to the left, three spots from the end. A stone replacing a person.

It’s a tall slab of stone. A grave left pristine and with dozens of fresh flowers each day. He's visited often. She leaves her own offering, a bouquet of white roses amongst them. She forgot that she was holding them at one point, and some of the tiny thorns dug into her skin. It bleeds just a little. She’ll tend to it later. 

She feels numb.

She reads. His real name (his nickname in quotes between his first and his last), the dates (a life that had gone by far too fast), a short phrase:

[The word was kinder with our Hero around.]

She summons up her voice, she pushes it past the lump in her throat.

"Hi, Hero. It's Aubrey again."

"I didn't come here last week, sorry. I hurt my ankle, so after the service I just wanted to go home."

"I know...I know you hate seeing me get hurt."

"You don't have to be so selfless all the time, Hero. You can let me hurt. I deserve it."

“I know there’s no way of you responding to anything, but I hope you don’t forgive me.”

“You would though, and that’s what hurts the most.”

"You know that, right?"

"Why would you ever forgive me..?!"

"That day, I…"

She stops abruptly. Why does she stop..?

"Aubrey..?"

Oh. That's it. Something behind her. A shadow, familiar. She doesn't look back, not yet.

"Mari." Aubrey forces out through gritted teeth. She doesn't feel so numb anymore. Something else is beginning to settle in its place.

"I didn't expect to see anyone around here. The sun is about to set…" 

Aubrey knows this. It's why she decided to come now. No one was supposed to be here.

"I come here often. Whenever I can. I haven't really seen you around, so I'm surprised too." Aubrey doesn’t mean it as an insult, but she’s sure Mari takes it as one. Maybe she shouldn’t speak as much. Maybe she shouldn’t speak at all. Maybe she doesn’t _deserve_ to speak.

"It's been hard. For the past few years I feel like I've just been going through the motions."

Aubrey doesn't feel numb anymore.

"I feel that." Empty words.

"..."

Silence. She feels something in its place.

"You loved him." Aubrey blurts out.

...Why did she do that? 

"I did. I don't think I ever stopped. Don't we all love him? You, Kel, Sunny, Basil, the whole town…"

"Yeah, but not in the same way." Aubrey shifts her gaze towards the ground. 

Flowers, flowers, always more flowers. She loved, he loved, they loved.

"You might be right. I don't think I could ever love anyone the same way again."

It hurts.

"He would want you to."

It hurts.

"I know that." Mari sighs. "I'm going to be honest, saying that doesn't really help. I'm not looking for anyone else. I'm not even looking for new _friends._ "

It _hurts._

"Are you looking for old friends, then..? Are you looking for us?"

"I think I lost my right to do that a long time ago."

It hurts _so bad._

"I don't think you did." Aubrey states firmly. It wasn't Mari who lost the right to be friends with everyone, it's _her_. And Kel. The two of them, forever locked up in a fistfight.

No one else is to blame. 

It hurts to think that Mari took all of it upon herself.

It hurts that Aubrey can't bring herself to say anything to rid her of it. 

Aubrey has always been selfish like that.

“I should have been there for you guys. I’m supposed to be everyone’s big sister, but I haven’t been someone even Sunny could rely on.” Mari draws a hand up to her forehead. She looks _exhausted._ “Instead I’ve just been stuck in my own head.”   
“It’s okay. I understand.” 

Aubrey sucks in a breath. She’s been stuck in her own head, too. 

**MARI**

It’s that feeling again. Helplessness, guilt, self-loathing. It always comes to this when she thinks of them. She shouldn't have come here. She didn’t _have_ to come see him. She didn’t even bring flowers. Fix-it closed early today.

“But you _don't_ understand. You are all just kids, even now. I should've taken it upon myself to keep us from breaking apart."

"You were a kid then, too. I don't blame you for how you handled it."

A kid then, but close enough to an adult. She had responsibilities at that age, but she abandoned every single one. _He_ wouldn’t do something like that.

"...Hero would've been better at this."

"He might’ve been, but you don't know that. It’s no use talking about what _he_ would’ve done! He can’t _do_ anything..!”

A different, terrible, _familiar_ feeling rises up within her. She lets it simmer. 

“Aubrey.”

“I’m right. You and Kel are the same. You’re both so hung up on this perfect image of him, and you don’t know how to live up to it.”

Mari blinks. Is she right? She can’t be right. She doesn’t know about what Kel’s been up to, but that’s not what she...  
“ _Aubrey_ …”

“News flash, Mari! Hero wasn’t perfect. He was human just like us, and _because_ he’s human just like us, he’s six feet under right now!”

_What?_

Anger. It’s _anger._ The new feeling is anger. Deep breaths. She can deal with anger. 

She can’t be angry at Aubrey. Sweet little Aubrey, she only ever wanted to protect her. She only ever wanted to be there for her, like a big sister would. When did that change? When did everything change?

“Aubrey! You can’t just say things like that!”

Deep breaths. That came out wrong.

“Sometimes, I wish I was the one that disappeared on that day. Maybe then people would be normal about it.”

No. Mari almost dwells on the thought, but she stops herself.   
“Aubrey, that’s not…”

“None of you have to live up to anything or change anything! Everyone was just fine as they were..!”

Mari’s anger dissipates almost completely at that. A part of it still remains, but she won’t let it win. Not this time.

What was she doing? Aubrey _needs_ her. Sunny needed her too, but she can’t fix that right now. 

Right now, all she can do is prevent another one of her relationships from breaking. She wouldn’t need to fix things with Aubrey if she doesn’t fall apart in front of her in the first place. 

Some things are just hard to accept. The passage of time is never kind. Mari needs to be better for all of them. She needs to start now. 

Maybe a hug would be a good place to start. The rest will come later.

  
  
  
  
  
  
  


**Notes for the Chapter:**

> hi again!! i was trying to get this chapter done within a week but i'm finally back in school so it's been a little hectic...  
> i think this chapter was kind of rough for me to write, but i hope it's ok!! i'm not the best at narrative writing, but i think i can get better with this <3
> 
> thank you so much for the kudos and comments! they motivate me more than anything!!  
> and thank you for reading :D


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